INTRODUCTION 5
cialism than as the dawn of a unifi ed Germany and Europe. In particular,
the 1970s and 1980s now tend to be painted as the backdrop for present-
day problems rather than a postwar history.^19 Instead of working from
the rationale behind institutions emerging in the postwar period, these
narratives look to their deterioration and renewal by following the trail
from their formation to their later reproduction.^20 They are paving the
way for a more nuanced joint German perspective that can shed more
light on the historical context of cross-border, or specifi c West and East
German, problems. After all, for at least half of the last fi fty years of his-
tory, Germany has been a reunifi ed nation. At the same time, there has
been a move to sketch out continuities between the Kaiserreich (imperial
era) and the 1970s for a variety of topics, bundled under the umbrella of
modernity. In order to avoid constructing purely teleological narratives of
the paths to liberalization or the postmodernity of the 1970s, however, it
is also essential to look across the Wall to the GDR.
The last decade has seen an infl ux of new topics in historical scholar-
ship that foster and even necessitate cross-border perspectives, such as
energy and environmental history, the history of everyday life, the history
of consumption, sports history, the history of medicine, or media history.
Not least, moreover, global history has changed the way we look at Eu-
rope and Germany. From a German angle, the Federal Republic and the
GDR may often have seemed to be two completely diff erent worlds. But,
from a European or even a global perspective, the ties between the two
Germanys become all the more apparent. Correspondingly, some cultural
history studies have recently been published in the United States that
portray both East and West Germany as postfascist societies.^21
In sum, although a joint German perspective has been relatively sel-
dom employed, this book nonetheless draws upon an array of existing
scholarship, not all of which can be explicitly mentioned here. One of the
most important works on German-Germany history up to 1970 remains
Christoph Kleßmann’s two-volume study that came out prior to the fall
of the Berlin Wall.^22 Since its publication, only a few general overviews
have approached East and West Germany together. When such studies
do include both states, the sections on the GDR more often than not tend
to serve as a foil for the story of the FRG’s success.^23 Furthermore, the
joint chapters on both Germanys mostly concentrate on the political re-
lationships within the framework of Ostpolitik and reunifi cation.^24 Using
such a comparative perspective, Mary Fulbrook, for example, describes
both states as competing experiments and urges that the achievements of
the GDR in social politics, women’s rights, and family policies should be
recognized.^25 A brief overview of German-German cultural history from
the pen of Carsten Kretschmann also highlights Western transfers and